Card payments overtake cash in Britain
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New data suggests Britons are using cards more than cash for the first time ever.
According to the annual Payments Survey from the British Retail Consortium, cards accounted for over 50% of all retail transactions by volume in the last year.
The survey said that was partly driven by UK customers increasingly using cards for lower value payments, rather than using small change.
"Cards have become the dominant payment method as retailers' investment in payment technology has facilitated greater customer choice over how they pay for their goods both in store and online," a statement from the consortium explained.
According to the UK Cards Association, debit and credit cards were used to make 16.4 billion purchases in 2016, up 146% from 6.7 billion in 2006. Growth in the number of card transactions has outstripped the rise in the amount spent, showing consumers' increasing preference for using cards instead of cash for lower value payments.
In the next decade, the increasing use of contactless and mobile payments, particularly by younger people, will be a major source of growth for debit card payments. The volume of debit card purchases is forecast to grow by 57% to 18.2 billion in 2026, four times) will be contactless. Credit card transactions are expected to increase to 3.7 billion by 2026.
Being able to accept card payments is key for any small business.
To ensure ActSmart can provide the best solution for all businesses, we have partnered two card processing partners - one for established businesses with medium to high card turnover and one for new and smaller businesses with lower card volumes.
Find out more about our card processing services.